Cosmological baryon diffusion and nucleosynthesis

Abstract

The diffusion rate of baryons through the big-bang plasma is calculated. Fluctuations in baryon density in the early Universe lead to inhomogeneities in the neutron-proton ratio, due to the differential diffusion of these particles through the radiation plasma. For certain types of nonlinear fluctuations, some nucleosynthesis would occur in very neutron-rich regions. Nuclear products of homogeneous neutron-enriched regions are evaluated numerically using a standard reaction network and these results are used to estimate final abundances in an inhomogeneous universe. Net deuterium and lithium abundances tend to increase and the net helium abundance tends to decrease compared to an unperturbed standard model. It is suggested that pronounced nonlinear baryon-density fluctuations produced in QCD- or electroweak-epoch phase transitions could alter abundances sufficiently to make a closed baryonic universe consistent with current observations of these elements. In such a model the abundance of heavier elements (C,N,O, etc.) increases significantly and approaches observable levels. Abundances can be used to place constraints on extreme scenarios for phase transitions at these epochs.